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How to Get Brazil (And Latin America) Completely Wrong
It’s been yet another rough week for Brazil’s international image, with an Olympic mascot shot dead in an absurd accident and another national political figure dragged into scandal. But the biggest blow of all came from Declan Ryan, co-founder of the Irish budget airline Ryanair, who told an Argentine newspaper that he was considering expansion … Read more
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Brazil’s Big Bet
This piece was updated on June 22 In 1946, the last year casinos were legal in Brazil, the ritzy Copacabana Palace in Rio de Janeiro was pulling in nearly $100 million a year from roulette and other table games. A frequent gambler was Benjamin Vargas, brother to a former president, who was notorious for chasing … Read more
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This Week in Latin America: Cash Scandal in Argentina
Sign up here to get This Week in Latin America delivered to your inbox every Monday. Cash Scandal in Argentina: Questioning will likely begin this week in an embezzlement investigation involving one of former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s closest former aides. José López, who was public works secretary under both Fernández and her late husband, was caught last weekattempting to hide $8.9 … Read more
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Threats to Environmental Activists Put Colombia’s Indigenous at Risk
While Colombia has made remarkable strides in reducing violence over the last two decades, the country remains a dangerous – and even deadly – place for environmental activists. According to a report released June 20 by the advocacy group Global Witness, at least 26 land and environmental activists were killed in the country in 2015. … Read more
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Podcast: What’s Next for Michel Temer and Brazil?
Also available for download for Apple iOS and Android. Allegations for the first time linking Brazil’s interim President Michel Temer to the Lava Jato corruption investigations are far from a smoking gun. But that may not be enough to protect Temer’s political future. With a slew of new plea bargain testimony expected in the weeks ahead, AQ’s editor-in-chief … Read more
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Michel Temer and the ‘Nobody Survives’ Scenario in Brasília
I had dinner recently with a Fortune 500 executive who was absolutely furious over Brazil. At great pains, he had finally convinced his board to take a fresh look at investing there under interim President Michel Temer’s government. But the latest wave of corruption-related resignations and arrests had scared them away once again, for fear … Read more
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Rio’s Forgotten Health Crisis
Editor’s Note: A version of this piece first appeared in Portuguese in Agência Pública, and can be seen here. The English translation has been lightly edited for clarity, context and length. As Rio de Janeiro prepares to receive hundreds of thousands of tourists and athletes from over 200 countries for the Olympic Games, health authorities … Read more
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Uruguay Oil Investment Bucks Global Pullback
After decades of standing by as neighbors Brazil and Argentina struck it rich in oil, Uruguay is getting into the action. Oil majors Total, ExxonMobil and Statoil are all making big investments in the tiny South American country, attracted by new projections that Uruguay may hold an “elephant” of an oil field. Problem is, with oil … Read more
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Far From Silicon Valley, Cuba Cultivates Startup Scene
The barriers to founding a tech startup in Cuba are high. For starters, hardly anyone has access to internet connections faster than dial-up. But that’s not stopping a generation of young entrepreneurs on the island, where a nascent tech community is challenging the idea that tech innovation has to come from places like Silicon Valley. Two of those … Read more
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The Northern Triangle’s Moment – and How to Make it Last
Central America’s most troubled region is at a turning point. Throughout the “Northern Triangle” of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, successful challenges to endemic corruption, violence and impunity are gaining force. A courageous generation of citizens, politicians and jurists is saying “enough.” But as the three countries remain gripped by staggering rates of violence and … Read more
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Venezuela: Is This the Final Straw?
To see a full list of electoral irregularities that have occurred since Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro took office, scroll to the bottom of the page I recently wrote about the one institutional factor that, in my opinion, is keeping Venezuela’s government alive. I called it the judicial shield, which refers to how the Supreme Court … Read more
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This Week in Latin America: Full Plate for the OAS
Sign up here to get This Week in Latin America delivered to your inbox every Monday. Leaders Gather: The Organization of American States (OAS) will hold its 46th annual assembly today through June 15 in Santo Domingo, with a political crisis in Haiti expected to take center stage. Haiti has missed repeated deadlines to elect a new president and its … Read more
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The Real Lesson of Mexico’s State Elections
Mexicans from the U.S. border to the Yucatan peninsula issued a strong rebuke to President Enrique Peña Nieto and his ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in state elections on Sunday. The PRI lost governorships in six of the nine states it held going into the vote, including four – Durango, Quintana Roo, Tamaulipas and Veracruz – … Read more
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In Occupying Schools, Rio’s Students Get a Political Education
Usually the challenge is to keep students in school. But 18-year-old Douglas Santana is one of thousands of teenagers from more than 70 high schools across the state of Rio de Janeiro who for months refused to go home until the government promised more investment in education. A senior at Colégio Estadual Visconde de Cairu … Read more
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This Week in Latin America: Polls Close in Peru
Sign up here to get This Week in Latin America delivered to your inbox every Monday. Peru Votes: With over 90 percent of votes counted as of publication, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski holds a slim lead in Peru’s run-off presidential election thanks to a late surge against his rival Keiko Fujimori. The 77-year-old Kuczynski, who would be the country’s oldest president at the time of taking office, positioned … Read more
